Arisen
from the union of two festivals - Festin, a street theatre event, created
by Grupo Galpão; and a stage one, projected by Carlos Rocha, director
of the Francisco Nunes Theatre - Belo Horizonte's International Theatre
Festival - Stage & Street (FIT - BH) has been a part of the city's
routine since 1994, when it was first achieved.
The main goal was to present an expressive biennial exhibition of the diversity within the contemporary theatre produced in Brazil and all over the world. Promoted by Belo Horizonte's City Hall, through the City Department of Culture, the festival's first version was materialized in 92 presentations - 38 stage and 54 street performances.
Besides its unique format in the context of most international festivals, searching an equilibrium for both stage and street performances, and the incorporation of alternative stages, FIT-BH has adopted, since its first version, the decentralization of the program, taking performances and plays to all nine administrative areas of Belo Horizonte. This procedure, added to a popular-price ticket policy for closed stages, has provided a wide and democratic access to the event, and therefore a fundamental lever to its success.
In this first version, some guest groups left a strong mark in the city, like the French Générik Vapeur that took over the capital's streets with its urban intervention called "Bivouac". Grupo Macunaíma was another example, bringing for the first time to Belo Horizonte a brief retrospective of director Antunes Filho´s work, one of the greatest Brazilian theater authors ever. The quick adhesion by the population brought to FIT-BH/94 a total estimated audience of 54 thousand people, surpassing all the preview expectations.
In order to expand the program and decentralize the public access, FIT-BH/96 was extended from 11 to 15 days, taking performances and plays to all administrative areas of Belo Horizonte and even to Mariana, Betim and Contagem - three small cities near the capital. With 31 plays unfolded to 117 presentations, FIT's second version reached a direct audience of 133 thousand people. The quality of the programming attained its peak through unforgettable performances, such as "Twelfth Night or What you Will", an adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedy by Backa Theatre (Sweden), "La Cour de Tous Les Miracles (The Court of the Miracles)", by Flash Marionnettes (France), and "Journey to the Center of the Earth", adapted by La Troppa (Chile) from Jules Verne's master piece.
One year later, in 1997, celebrating the centenary of Belo Horizonte, a special vesion of FIT was held as an anniversary gift to the city. More compact than in the years before, the new version tried to keep an expressive programming and, at the same time, make a tribute to some of the groups that had made a mark in the earlier versions. Générik Vapeur returned to the Festival bringing once more the play "Bivouac", along with their new work "Coche Porque? Porque Coche?" inspired in Belo Horizonte's chaotic traffic. The French artists from Flash Marionnettes and the Spanish Boni & Caroli were also back in town.
In its 4th vesion, FIT-BH/98 enlarged the range of plays and performances bringing for the first time productions from Asia, Africa and Cuba. The initiative fulfilled a guiding wish of the festival program - to provide the public the opportunity to get in touch with all kinds of tendencies in the contemporary performing arts world. After being reduced to eleven days, the Festival finally found the appropriate format, free from lack and excess.
In the opening performance, the French group Plasticiens Volants mobilized an estimated audience of 1.000 people, that in a total state of ecstasy, conducted "Ézili" - an enormous inflated creature - through many blocks in the city. The group enchanted the audience once more with the play "Dom Quixote", a truly challenge to gravity laws witnessed by a bewildered audience. The enthusiasm demonstrated by the onlookers during this marathon proved once more that Belo Horizonte loves to surrender to the enchantments of theatre.
The 5th and last vesion of FIT-BH, held in August 2000, offered a program built with 102 presentations and 23 performances - ten national and 13 international productions from nine different countries (Chile, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Poland, China and Singapore).
Many theatre styles were represented and therefore conquered applause from an estimated audience of 120 thousand people (including participants from the special events, such as workshops, video sessions, debates, conferences and method demonstrations). Used to joining, in procession, the Festival's noisy and magnificent opening performances, the audience was caught by surprise this time. The opening event was Chinese Theatre Circle's (Singapore) production, based on excerpts from traditional Chinese Opera. The reaction was a mix of surprise and enchantment.
The Traditional Circus (Simões Brothers) and the New French Circus (Convoi Exceptionnel), physical theatre associated with the thoughts of Jerzy Grotowsky (Studium Teatralne, Pondetera Center Theatre), resistance plays (La Candelaria Theatre) and comedy in its lightest and more immediate meaning (Compagnie Agitex), among other examples, lived together for eleven days, providing a unique and significant artistic encounter in its full sense, that is, to interact with the audience and also to reflect about its own meaning and the impulse of new creations.
This version consolidated Belo Horizonte's International Theatre Festival - Stage & Street as the most recognized cultural initiative of the capital's City Hall. Besides, it emphasized once again the success of its main goals - forming and informing the performing arts public arts, following a standard based in the ideal "quality with diversity".
The main goal was to present an expressive biennial exhibition of the diversity within the contemporary theatre produced in Brazil and all over the world. Promoted by Belo Horizonte's City Hall, through the City Department of Culture, the festival's first version was materialized in 92 presentations - 38 stage and 54 street performances.
Besides its unique format in the context of most international festivals, searching an equilibrium for both stage and street performances, and the incorporation of alternative stages, FIT-BH has adopted, since its first version, the decentralization of the program, taking performances and plays to all nine administrative areas of Belo Horizonte. This procedure, added to a popular-price ticket policy for closed stages, has provided a wide and democratic access to the event, and therefore a fundamental lever to its success.
In this first version, some guest groups left a strong mark in the city, like the French Générik Vapeur that took over the capital's streets with its urban intervention called "Bivouac". Grupo Macunaíma was another example, bringing for the first time to Belo Horizonte a brief retrospective of director Antunes Filho´s work, one of the greatest Brazilian theater authors ever. The quick adhesion by the population brought to FIT-BH/94 a total estimated audience of 54 thousand people, surpassing all the preview expectations.
In order to expand the program and decentralize the public access, FIT-BH/96 was extended from 11 to 15 days, taking performances and plays to all administrative areas of Belo Horizonte and even to Mariana, Betim and Contagem - three small cities near the capital. With 31 plays unfolded to 117 presentations, FIT's second version reached a direct audience of 133 thousand people. The quality of the programming attained its peak through unforgettable performances, such as "Twelfth Night or What you Will", an adaptation of William Shakespeare's comedy by Backa Theatre (Sweden), "La Cour de Tous Les Miracles (The Court of the Miracles)", by Flash Marionnettes (France), and "Journey to the Center of the Earth", adapted by La Troppa (Chile) from Jules Verne's master piece.
One year later, in 1997, celebrating the centenary of Belo Horizonte, a special vesion of FIT was held as an anniversary gift to the city. More compact than in the years before, the new version tried to keep an expressive programming and, at the same time, make a tribute to some of the groups that had made a mark in the earlier versions. Générik Vapeur returned to the Festival bringing once more the play "Bivouac", along with their new work "Coche Porque? Porque Coche?" inspired in Belo Horizonte's chaotic traffic. The French artists from Flash Marionnettes and the Spanish Boni & Caroli were also back in town.
In its 4th vesion, FIT-BH/98 enlarged the range of plays and performances bringing for the first time productions from Asia, Africa and Cuba. The initiative fulfilled a guiding wish of the festival program - to provide the public the opportunity to get in touch with all kinds of tendencies in the contemporary performing arts world. After being reduced to eleven days, the Festival finally found the appropriate format, free from lack and excess.
In the opening performance, the French group Plasticiens Volants mobilized an estimated audience of 1.000 people, that in a total state of ecstasy, conducted "Ézili" - an enormous inflated creature - through many blocks in the city. The group enchanted the audience once more with the play "Dom Quixote", a truly challenge to gravity laws witnessed by a bewildered audience. The enthusiasm demonstrated by the onlookers during this marathon proved once more that Belo Horizonte loves to surrender to the enchantments of theatre.
The 5th and last vesion of FIT-BH, held in August 2000, offered a program built with 102 presentations and 23 performances - ten national and 13 international productions from nine different countries (Chile, Colombia, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Poland, China and Singapore).
Many theatre styles were represented and therefore conquered applause from an estimated audience of 120 thousand people (including participants from the special events, such as workshops, video sessions, debates, conferences and method demonstrations). Used to joining, in procession, the Festival's noisy and magnificent opening performances, the audience was caught by surprise this time. The opening event was Chinese Theatre Circle's (Singapore) production, based on excerpts from traditional Chinese Opera. The reaction was a mix of surprise and enchantment.
The Traditional Circus (Simões Brothers) and the New French Circus (Convoi Exceptionnel), physical theatre associated with the thoughts of Jerzy Grotowsky (Studium Teatralne, Pondetera Center Theatre), resistance plays (La Candelaria Theatre) and comedy in its lightest and more immediate meaning (Compagnie Agitex), among other examples, lived together for eleven days, providing a unique and significant artistic encounter in its full sense, that is, to interact with the audience and also to reflect about its own meaning and the impulse of new creations.
This version consolidated Belo Horizonte's International Theatre Festival - Stage & Street as the most recognized cultural initiative of the capital's City Hall. Besides, it emphasized once again the success of its main goals - forming and informing the performing arts public arts, following a standard based in the ideal "quality with diversity".
